Feeling a lot more rested so I thought I would write some more on the weekend. My post last night was very brief and I had lots to say but was super tired. I course built all courses all four days plus camped and of course as soon as I got home, had to clean the entire house and do all the laundry before I could relax. Work is sort of slow today so been putting my thoughts together. Here goes nothing. Going back to the positives and negatives list.
Positives: I think he hit his weave entry 5 out of 8 times this weekend, some in a flat out run. One of the misses he hit the entry but didn't collect enough and popped out. The other entry I tried to start out as a rear to the poles and as i stepped in, he turned away from them so that was my fault. The other he had a bobble right at the beginning as I said go tunnel, he ran past the entrance, went to the wall and stopped and looked back at me like, what tunnel? needed a turn command to switch his lead, my fault too. The next obstacle was the weaves and I just think he was a little stressed because he hates being wrong. I felt like there were at least three runs were we looked like a real team. BIGGEST positive of all, except for the one weave pole entry, he COLLECTED for every lead out thus starting the courses off without us fighting. I have seen a trend of us fighting on collection at the beginning and the rest of the run being off because of it. I made sure I was maintaining eye contact and that he was looking at me, not whatever the off course obstacle was behind me. One time, it was even a straight tunnel and he came with me, GOOD BOY! I did have one front cross where I did not get my hand up quick enough and I was racing to get to the cross thus cueing extension and he ran a little past me but came back in and took the correct obstacle. That was okay, motion over rode anything else in that instance.
The standard run on sunday was the bestest we have ever had:) There were so many off course options every time you turned around and he stayed with me and listened the entire time. There was hardly any yelling his name, no reactive handling, just us running. Other than a bar in that run, it was my favorite and I hope we can have many more like that. That is the dog I know he can be and would like to see more of it.
Negatives: Had a really stressy day on monday (last day of trial). He self released off of his a-frame, then self released off of the dog walk. I corrected him by stopping him and saying uh-oh. Didn't work as the next contact was the teeter and he self released off of that one too. That one was a big tweet you are done. Apparently that really, really bothered him, even though we went and did some toes and got lots of cookies after we left the ring. When I got him out to run jumpers, he was still down, still had his nose on the ground. I had to literally pick him up to get him to get his nose off of the ground. I HATE this stress and am trying everything I know to deal with it. He was fine the first three days, no stress at all. I had been commenting to everyone about how stress free he had been the whole weekend, even when he had missed his entry to his weave poles. I know he hates being wrong but he has to know that what he did was wrong or else how do I fix it? He is the type of dog that if you let him get away with something once, he will try it again and again. I let him not go down on the table once this weekend and he tried to stay in a sitting position every run after that. I can't let him get away with bad contacts. I refuse to have another miller! Now, in his defense, he was in the crate way more than normal. He was pretty much confined from 6 am in the morning till almost 4 pm every day and then on sunday night, another 6 hours while we were at the cook out. I know that had some affect on the baby dog for sure. A big negative on me, which I have been working on but still need more help is deceleration. I had a beautiful JWW run but on a 180, ran all the way up to the first jump and flung him way out to the second part. There was no need for me to be that close and decel probably would have made it way tighter. Again, this goes back to mr. miller making me have to run up to everything to get him to go over it. MUST. STOP. NOW.
He is also not wanting to stay on my hand. One of the JWW course had a back side of a jump after the weaves but then into a 180 and I couldn't handle it like I normally would a back side jump scenario. You really needed to be on the back side too to handle the 180 smoothly so I had to snooker around the jump then rotate into it to let him take it. He wanted to release off of my hand so bad that I had to fight him around the corner to keep him on that hand and off of off course stuff. This is going to kill me in snooker for sure when I need him tight and on my hand. I know a lot of aussies don't like working tight, but too bad, he is going to have to get over it.
Looking forward to another three day weekend with the baby dog. We got that last leg we needed in excellent A JWW so now am running in B but still need one more leg in Excellent A standard. It will come, I know, so I am not rushing anything but it would be nice to not be at the bottom of the freaking 20 inch class. Mentally, I don't like watching 100, 20 inch dogs run before me (flashing back to USDAA and AKC nationals where i was at the end and had to watch almost 6-8 hours of 20 inch dogs running). I really like to be at the top of the running order. I will have to say that (and this may be TMI again so stop reading if you don't want to know) once again, my nervous stomach has not acted up at all this past weekend. I don't get as nervous with him as I did with miller so no running to the bathroom constantly. This is a bonus:) So, one more leg to reach my goals for the year 2011. Kind of crazy to think we are winding down. Looking forward to some USDAA in a couple of weeks.
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